Dance Brothers follows Roni and Sakari, two brothers who open their own club in order to make it as professional dancers, but it soon causes a rift between them. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Sakari and Roni Luoto are brothers who wish to be successful dancers. Roni choreographs, and the brothers dance together. However, after returning to Finland from England, they live with their mother and work different jobs.
To perform at the biggest dance festival in Finland, Helsinki International Dance Fest (HIDF), which would give them an opportunity to kickstart their careers, they decide to audition for the Arvola Dance Company’s show.
Sakari gets selected, while Roni does not. Sakari decides to keep this from his brother and rejects the offer. At a party, Sakari meets a girl named Karo, who dances in the music videos of a popular DJ, Angelo.
Things go wrong at the party, as Sakari and Roni get into a fight with a group and are forced to escape. They hide in an empty warehouse, and when they think the group has caught up to them, they attack the person in the warehouse, who turns out to be an old man.
The brothers end up in prison, but the old man, Firuz, and his wife, Aida Bosch-Azizi, drop charges against them because they heard the brothers talking about the warehouse being the perfect place for opening a club and wish to support their vision.
Sakari, who works as a bartender, is thrilled, and after some hesitation, Roni also agrees to rent the place from the Bosches, as this will give them an opportunity to move out of their mother’s house, make money, and rehearse at the same time until they make their dreams come true.
The brothers take a loan to open their own club called Laundry, and the Bosches get ten percent ownership. The club’s opening night does not do well at all, even though Karo brings Angelo there, because of the failure of Firuz Bosch’s ad campaign.
When the brothers find it hard to pay rent, they go to meet Angelo, who was earlier insulted by Roni, and convince him to perform at their club. Angelo will get ticket sales, and the brothers will get a chance to make their club popular.
After Angelo’s performance, when the crowd starts leaving the club, the brothers dance together to get them to stay. People record their performance and post it online. Soon, their dance gets popular on social media, and their club also gets the publicity it needs.
Meanwhile, Sakari and Karo start dating, and Roni’s old friend, Viima, who works at the Arvola Dance Company, agrees to join Drastic, Roni and Sakari’s dance company. Through her, Roni finds out that Sakari was selected by Arvola and that he rejected the offer.
Viima introduces Roni to Ingvil Ranta, the woman in charge of HIDF. Roni needs to prove to Ranta that Drastic can sell tickets, so he tells her that they will be hosting a dance battle between the brothers, whose online video has been termed “Fire vs. Ice”.
They successfully sell all the tickets, but Sakari starts doing drugs. On top of that, they need money immediately to fix problems at the club. It is also important for Roni, who does not want to lose to his brother again, to win against Sakari, who sees it as a show and not a competition.
While Roni has better dance moves, Sakari is a better showman and ends up winning the competition. Ranta comes to see their dance battle and decides to put the brothers in HIDF’s fall program.
Sakari then finds out that before the battle, Roni had bet on him winning the battle, while Angelo had bet on Sakari winning. Angelo had paid to fix the problems at the club, and since Roni lost, the brothers now need to pay him double the amount he paid.
Additionally, Angelo opens a new club to rival Laundry and hires Laundry’s DJ. The brothers face a hard time once again, as they lose their customers to Angelo. Sakari goes to Angelo’s club and humiliates Karo under the influence by questioning her relationship with Angelo.
In the brothers’ absence, the club catches fire. No one gets hurt, but insurance covers only half of the damages incurred, and the brothers do not have the funds for renovations. It is Angelo who takes care of the damage caused by the fire.
On the other hand, Angelo is making a song called “Lullaby” based on the lullaby that Karo’s grandmother used to sing to her. Karo reluctantly allows him to do so when he tells her that she will be choreographing the music video.
However, when Karo rejects his advances and further refuses to make the dance overtly sexual, he replaces her with another girl in the music video and changes the choreography. He slut-shames her when she confronts him, and Karo decides to walk away.
It is then that Sakari finds out that Roni also lost 35 percent of the club’s shares to Angelo in the bet. In the resulting argument, Roni tells Sakari that he is everything because of him, and Sakari decides to quit. Karo also breaks up with Sakari because of his drunken actions.
Roni’s mother forces him to make up with his brother, and the brothers decide to get back to practicing for HIDF, but Sakari’s lack of concentration bothers Viima. When Roni further claims that there is nothing between him and her, Viima decides to quit.
Roni changes the whole choreography to suit a duo instead of a trio. Later, at an event, an annoyed Ranta warns Roni not to mess up at HIDF, as it will be the end of his and his brother’s careers.
Additionally, Roni meets Francesco Apolinar from the Warsaw Festival. This man can make the brothers’ dream of becoming professional dancers come true, and they only have one chance to impress him at HIDF.
Viima also approaches Roni and apologizes. She offers to join Drastic again, as she does not want to mess up their performance, but Roni rejects her offer, much to her disappointment. A frustrated Roni, who keeps denying his feelings, ends up hurting his ankle that night while dancing on his own.
If that was not enough, Angelo wants to change Laundry completely, which frustrates Sakari because the club means a lot to him. With HIDF approaching, their club in danger, and a hurt ankle, will the brothers make their dreams come true?
Dance Brothers ending explained in detail:
Does Karo get back at Angelo?
After Angelo replaces Karo in the music video of “Lullaby”, Karo finds an old DVD of her grandmother singing that lullaby to her. She hands over that DVD to Doris, her friend who used to work as a DJ at Laundry.
Angelo then apologizes to Karo and wishes to continue working with her. He invites her to the premiere of “Lullaby”, and Karo agrees to join the celebration if he allows her to be the opening act with Doris. Angelo is ready to let her do that.
On the day of the event, Karo plays Doris’ version of “Lullaby” along with the video of her grandmother singing it, and she dances to that song. As soon as Angelo realizes what is happening, he tries to stop her, but the damage is already done.
While Karo reclaims what was hers, Angelo’s contract gets dissolved when people find out that Angelo stole Karo’s grandmother’s lullaby.
What is Roni and Sakari’s new strategy?
With Roni’s injured ankle, the brothers find it hard to rehearse. When Roni seeks comfort from his mother, he gets an idea that might help them. He decides to switch his role with Sakari’s, as Sakari’s part does not require overexerting his ankle.
Sakari and Roni practice for HIDF, and Sakari stops consuming drugs the way he did before. However, Angelo still has plans to change Laundry. The brothers then attend a party thrown by the Bosches.
Sakari’s worries about Laundry are put to rest by Aida, who tells him that the Bosches have the right of redemption on any shares that the brothers might wish to divest, which means Roni’s shares cannot go to Angelo without their permission.
Sakari has a way to protect Laundry, but that very night, Aida is taken to the hospital, as she has chest pains. Roni assures Sakari that they will deal with Angelo and Laundry’s problem after their performance at HIDF.
What happens to Sakari and Roni at HIDF?
Sakari and Roni’s dress rehearsal is a disaster. At night, Sakari witnesses Roni having a panic attack because of that and comforts him. The next day, he takes charge and refuses to cancel their performance, even when Roni offers to do so.
When Sakari sees Firuz at the festival with Aida nowhere in sight, he starts thinking about the hurtful things that Roni had said to him, his relationship with Roni as well as his relationship with Karo.
Their performance starts, and in the middle of it, Sakari loses control. The brothers start fighting in front of the audience, but when Roni sees the state Sakari is in, he realizes his mistakes and stops fighting Sakari.
Roni asks Sakari to take the lead, and the two start dancing again. This time, they dance better than ever before. Their performance impresses everyone. It even gets the attention of Francesco Apolinar, who wants them to go to Warsaw, which means they would get to tour the world.
However, Roni refuses the offer, as he now realizes that this was always his dream, not Sakari’s, and he kept dragging him along because he needed his brother to make it come true. He realizes that he needs to make his dream come true on his own.
When Sakari asks him about his future plans, Roni looks at Viima, who now wants to collaborate with someone. Before doing any of that, Roni plans to save what is important to his younger brother — Laundry.
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